THE MEANING OF THE BASIC ATTITUDES OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC-INTERACTIONAL METHOD FOR GROUP-PSYCHOTHERAPY

The four basic attitudes of the psychoanalytic-interactional method in clude present, intensive caring attention, unrestricted respect of the patient's fate and how and what he came to be, and emotionally accept ing the patient at least in the sense of compassion. Further the effor t to be authentic towards the patient - while considering his or her l imits of tolerance is also one of the basic attitudes. These basic att itudes should not only be developed towards each individual patient, b ut also towards the group as a whole, towards group achievements, i.e. the efforts of the group members to influence the group process in su ch a way that the necessary psyche-social compromises are made possibl e. These attitudes are ideal norms and it is not always possible for t he psychotherapist to live up to them. There are always disturbances a nd restrictions in the therapeutic process. The reasons and causes for these restrictions must be looked for in the verbal and non-verbal in teractions the therapist offers, which have to be viewed as expression s of her counter-transference. Counter-transference can be potentially disturbing for the development of a therapeutically effective relatio nship on the one hand; on the other hand it can be a means of access f or the therapist to deal with her own experiences. If she is able to f ind this understanding access then the restrictions of the basic attit udes do not apply as experience shows. The therapist often needs a ''t hird object'' to develop an understanding for her own counter-transfer ence (supervision, intervision, or discussions with friends). Disconce rting elements of the therapist's own experiences which arise in her c ounter-transference can manifest themselves in resistances of the requ ired basic attitudes. The patient's possibly disconcerting elements of coping with his experiences can also be reflected herein. So correspo ndent experiences of the interaction partners can become recognizable. It then is possible to recognize and understand the patient in onesel f and oneself in the patent.